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53-63 New Bond Street (Redevelopment of the former Fenwick department store)

London, UK

º£½ÇÊÓƵ helped to enable an ambitious adaptive reuse of a West End retail landmark. The distinctive 53-63 New Bond Street has been an attractive part of the Mayfair cityscape for generations, most recently as the London home of the Fenwick department store, with parts of the building dating back to the 1880s.  

The building was acquired by Lazari at the close of 2022, who were keen to explore the opportunities for redevelopment of the property as a highly sustainable mixed-use block of retail and commercial office space. The developers initially engaged º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s structural, facade, fire and experts to investigate the best options, with a particular focus on minimising the carbon impact of the process. In later stages a wider multidisciplinary º£½ÇÊÓƵ team supported the development.

The challenge lay in transforming six buildings into a single, efficient, world-class office and retail space, with natural frontage to New Bond Street, while balancing the need to maximise retention of the existing structure, preserve the historic facade, and minimise the carbon intensity of the transformation. 

The property has been a landmark in Mayfair for generations, as the well-known Fenwick department store, with parts dating back to the 1880s. 

Our structural and sustainability team helped the client understand the viability of retaining a significant percentage of the former store as part of an adaptive reuse plan.

We developed a series of innovative interventions to the superstructure, using hydraulic jacks to lift existing floorplates, while new structural elements were added.

The embodied carbon is predicted to be 463kgCO2e/m² – well below Westminster’s target of 600kgCO2e/m². 

Challenge

Assessing the relative merits of adaptive reuse versus demolition and rebuild is always complex. The heritage and retail value of the existing storefront had to be taken into consideration, while generous existing column grids facilitated exploration of vertical extension of the building – significantly opening the commercial potential for the site. 

Although from the street, the department store appeared as one structure – it was in fact made up of six buildings, with sections added to the store at different points through the 20^th century. A key challenge for our team was the irregular and slightly muddled nature of the buildings, which was an organic response to an idiosyncratic department store that had expanded over time but not ideally suited to the creation of world class office and retail space. We had to balance the need to modify the space, including levelling the floorplates, with the desire to maximise the retention of existing fabric. 

Levelling the floorplates posed one of the most significant challenges. Hiding structural steps in floor and ceiling zones would challenge already significantly constrained floor-to-ceiling heights, while a requirement to minimise the carbon intensity ruled out removing all the structural framing and rebuilding within the existing facade. Crucially, the design intent was to preserve as much of the existing structural frame as possible. This required our team to develop a highly innovative solution that worked within these constraints.  

Plans to add additional storeys to the building also meant the foundations would need to be significantly strengthened. This posed another key challenge, given the constraints of the site, with tight head-room and many unknown below-ground obstructions.

The topping out of 63 New Bond Street marks a key milestone in the transformation of this historic West End landmark, combining complex structural engineering, extensive retention and reuse of existing elements, and low-carbon design solutions to create a revitalised mixed-use destination. Render: Foster + Partners. Construction image: º£½ÇÊÓƵ.

Solution

We acted as a trusted advisor to the client. We initially provided a comprehensive Stage One multi-disciplinary due diligence review on the technical feasibility of an existing consented planning submission for the redevelopment of the building. This was delivered alongside an assessment of the key risks and opportunities around pursuing a new planning submission.  

The plan envisaged the five-storey building extended vertically, with a CLT and steel frame addition to cover three to six extra storeys, with the floors above level 2 dedicated to commercial office space.  

Following Lazari’s acquisition of the site, we collaborated closely to understand their brief and then presented the complex interplay of factors – such as embodied carbon, basement extent, framing, and retention – in a clear and concise way, enabling them to make informed decisions. 

The final scheme sees retention of around half the of the existing structure and 75% of the historic facades. We are also aiming to reuse 80% of the existing steelwork. The embodied carbon is predicted to be 463kgCO2e/m² (well below Westminster’s target of 600kgCO2e/m²). The scheme was so compelling that it was granted planning in April 24, 5 months after it was submitted. 

I’m very impressed with this. It’s very uplifting to get an application like this, with the work and the imagination that has gone into it, the engagement with people… and the opportunities for people in Westminster and around for employment. It’s lovely, it’s great.

Planning committee chair Cllr Ruth Bush 

Having completed Stage Four Design, works are in full flow on site with a view to completing the building in the second half of 2027.  

To meet our client’s aspiration of creating world-class office space while achieving their 50% retention target, we proposed the innovative idea of jacking the existing floors up and down at a scale never attempted before. Similarly, for the existing facades, to deliver a world-class retail frontage while retaining historically significant elements, we developed a solution, together with Erith, the structural contractor, to lift the facades between 4.5 and 5.0 meters – again, a scale never previously attempted. 

The plan to use hydraulic jacks to lift floorplates and some facade elements, enables the delivery of level workspaces as well as providing the client with better floor-to-ceiling heights. This ambitious approach, alongside the plan to construct additional floors on top of the existing building, also meant the foundations had to be strengthened, with new piling measures. Once again, a highly innovative approach had to be developed, using a modified piling rig that could fit into the basement of the existing building. New piles were set either side of existing foundations so that the existing columns could be temporarily supported using plunge columns and bespoke lifting frames, while the new pile caps were constructed.

A series of new transfer structures were also designed to allow the opening up of a new diagonal atrium void, spanning up through seven levels of the building, allowing light to reach the middle of the office floorplates.

Value

Our initial assessment gave confidence to both the client and third-party funders to pursue the project. º£½ÇÊÓƵ has since supported the client and design team through to Stage Five, and our work has focused on demonstrating the risks and opportunities for retention of the old structure as part of a robust adaptive reuse and redevelopment. Delivering this as part of a broad multidisciplinary team has ensured clarity and close collaboration across disciplines throughout. 

We showed the need for significant retention for the project to achieve the client’s own high sustainability aspirations as well as to retain the spirit of this historic landmark of New Bond Street. The regeneration of the building will provide luxury retail space at ground and first floor, with high-end office space above.